Historic Northampton presents Toyz n’ Totz III, an exhibition of paintings and sculpture by Christin Couture and William Hosie on the theme of childhood. The exhibition features children’s toys from the collection of Historic Northampton combined with artwork by Couture and Hosie as well as early American items from their own collection. They create a new context or environment for Historic Northampton’s objects, one that focuses on the imagination and emotional life of children.

Artist/collectors Christin Couture and William Hosie favor objects with strong visual power and thorough design considerations. Childhood objects of motion are especially compelling as they indicate change and travel. A rocking horse belonging to the artists, circa 1835, stripped of its mane and saddle, possesses a streamlined immediacy with a back and forth movement. At Historic Northampton, two well-used toy horses with original coverings and wheels travel in linear motion.

Unexpected revelations that also represent motion and have visual attraction are the Myriopticon produced by Milton Bradley, and the Phenakistiscope, an optical toy. These toys, both from the collection of Historic Northampton, show moving pictures and were precursors of early cinema. The suggestion of movement is in striking contrast to images of children in daguerreotypes who are portrayed as stiffly frozen in time.

The artists have dedicated this exhibition to the memory of Jeremiah Laikind.

Christin Couture’s paintings have often been focused on children and infants. Inspired by Victorian photography, her works possess an edge of mystery and foreboding. Her more recent imagery has included icebergs, volcanoes, and other natural phenomena.

﻿﻿﻿William Hosie works with small scale, interrelated bodies of sculpture called “sitings.” They are built, half-built, unbuilt, rebuilt; they recall a vast playground of toy-like structures, and often contain embedded color-coded shapes which add energy and movement to these forms. ﻿﻿﻿

Panorama of the Visit of Santa Claus to the Happy Children, made by the Milton Bradley Company of Springfield, is a miniature version of the full-scale panoramas popular in mid-nineteenth century America. (Collection of Historic Northampton)

Twins (detail) , Anonymous, late 19th Century, oil on canvas

The Magic Wheel, made by J. Bradburn of New York City and copyrighted in 1864, is an ingenious device that produces a moving image. It involves holding a disk in front of a mirror, spinning the disk, and viewing the disk's pattern through holes. In this example, wood is being sawed. Other disks in the set include a frog jumping and an acrobat walking on a tightrope. (Collection of Historic Northampton)